Tag: journalism

  • Early in my career…

      Reading old clips from my first days as a small town newspaperman is a sad reminder that for me, “news” was definitely a four-letter word.

  • Why We Write: From Bylines to Blue Streaks

    Last year, a colleague of mine at the Future Journalism Project (a collective of reporters, editors and documentarians exploring “disruption, opportunity and innovation in journalism”) received a reader query that asked: “What is it about journalism that you love? Why did you become a journalist?” The FJP’s brain-trust, Michael Cervieri, turned the question over to…

  • Covering the Apocalypse

    I’ve often wondered what it might be like to be an embedded journalist during?Armageddon (sadly, my shrink would observe this says more about my career and the state of the industry than the end of the world). Happily, I’ve found I’m not alone:??On the Media offers an interesting segment, Covering the Apocalypse, in which veteran…

  • Clark Kent Laid Off, Starts Blog

    The Daily Planet laid me off today. My editor Perry sauntered over to my cube, dropped his bristly knuckles on my desk and said, ?Clark, can I have a word?? Normally, this would be followed by a refresher on our sexual harassment policy and a certain ?Little Lady? at the city desk. See how I…

  • The Fourth and Fifth Estates

    A couple weeks back, a Sonoma Index-Tribune reader opined about the press in a letter to the editor in which he errantly referred to us as the “third estate.” We in the press are actually the fourth estate, so named because the first three were already the clergy, the nobility and the commoners – in…

  • From GunBun to Gayot

    Yes, ’twas I who wrote the January/February cover story on Gundlach-Bunschu Winery for Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine. Winery scion Jeff Bundschu is a veritable quote machine in the interesting position of maintaining four generations of family legacy while aggressively embracing the future (I once produced a Gun-Bun tribute video for the Sonoma Valley Vintner’s…

  • I Heart Darwin

    Apropos that the California Academy of Science would launch its NightLife series of evening events sandwiched between Darwin Day (an international celebration of science and reason) and Valentine’s Day, the heart-shaped holiday that induces flights of romantic fancy through casual doping with phenylethylamine, the so-called ?love-chemical? found in chocolate. It was date-night in the City…

  • Newsroom of the Future

    This is my mash note to Mitch Joel, president of Montr?al-based digital marketing agency Twist Image, whose blog, ?Six Pixels of Separation,? is currently my mental vitamin. I discovered Joel’s blog when I googled ?How to build a media empire? during a recent fit of megalomania and was delighted to find his informative post entitled,…

  • Word of Mouth

    When one plays on my side of the media game, one ends up on a lot of e-mail lists. Inasmuch as I’m often surprised to which lists my address has been sold, I’m sure the purchasers of my address are just as often surprised that I receive their cloying missives – who would surely rather I…